I also agree about focusing on the business relationships. I always feel like there is a hard divide between IT and the rest of the organization, with the majority of the company feeling like IT is there to put limits and restrictions on what they can do and give them less-than-ideal tools. If there was better cooperation and collaboration between teams, there would be not just more positive relationships between the departments, but key stakeholders would be able to get involved in IT projects to ensure they meet the needs of what the users are trying to accomplish. Users get better tools, IT gets less headaches. Win-win!

Great point about meeting people where they are. Our customers and employees are often leaps and bounds ahead of the organization in emerging technology. We face risks of being left behind if we aren't moving faster than we tend to.

This is the line that jumped out for me: "No matter what we're saying about adopting mobile technology, nothing is coming out bold enough for our business partners." This isn't like the dot-com days, when we're all learning about this Internet tech together. People are there when it comes to mobile -- they live on their mobile devices, and it's just a matter of whether our brands are there to meet them, or our company tools are there to tap into that energy and interest.

Onyeka and I discussed BYOD recently and he used another driving analogy I think many of you will appreciate. He says he doesn't put up stop signs for people on the business side -- he puts up caution signs. I think that's a useful analogy when discussing mobile strategy.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.